Jacksonville Beach surfer takes to the waves for a record - and breast cancer support

Matt Soergel

Thursday

Oct 27, 2011 at 9:14 PM

Before his marathon surf session ended Thursday night, Kurtis Loftus saw the sun rise once over the Atlantic Ocean and set twice over Jacksonville Beach.

A digital clock on the beach told the story: 31 hours, 16 minutes, 35 seconds. And he was done.

Counting some brief breaks he was allowed for each hour in the water, Loftus caught slightly more than 300 waves and surfed at least 29 hours, said his wife, Margaret, who stayed on the beach the entire time and didn't sleep a wink.

Considering the marathon he'd gone through, Loftus was spry and still coherent as he got out of the water just past 8:15 p.m., sprayed by champagne and held aloft by friends who'd surfed the last couple of hours with him.

"I just wanted to push really hard at something special," he said to Donna Deegan, under the lights of a TV camera.

Check out more photos from Kurtis Loftus' surfing marathon

The crowd of well-wishers cheered again, as they'd done with every wave he'd caught after dark, visible through the gloom because of the glow-sticks he wore around his neck.

Loftus, 50, paddled out at the end of Beach Boulevard at 1 p.m. Wednesday. His aim: to set a world record for longest surf session ever, while raising money for 26.2 With Donna, the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer.

This month, that task unexpectedly became tougher.

A surfer in California established a Guinness World Record last November by surfing 26 hours, 1 minute. Loftus, a Jacksonville Beach artist, figured he'd break that by going out for 26 hours, 12 minutes. Then he learned of a British surfer who reportedly surfed for 28 hours, 2 minutes.

A tougher target to beat.

That meant he had to face another sunset Thursday before he would be done. He was allowed a dry-land break of five minutes for every hour in the water. He surfed three hours at a time, saving up for 15 minute breaks. Those breaks, though, didn't count toward his total time.

So staying out past 8 p.m., he figured, should safely get him a new record.

'Torturous'The night was tough, he admitted.

Generators powered floodlights on the beach, enough for those on the sand to see Loftus as he surfed. Past sunset, past midnight, past the wee hours of the morning, he kept surfing, glow-sticks looped his neck.

But the lights didn't help Loftus much. On that dark night, as Wednesday turned to Thursday, waves would still sneak up on him, slapping him in the head.

"Torturous," he said, sitting on his surfboard at sunrise, still in the water almost 17 hours after paddling out. Morning was so welcome, he said, that he got a little too excited when it came - and he needed to conserve his energy for the surfing still to come.

He wasn't alone: Friends on surfboards took shifts with him, keeping him company through the night. That was good.

But he still zoned out sometimes, finding himself standing in chest-deep water after riding a wave, not thinking to paddle back out. Then he thought about sharks, how vulnerable he felt there, so he heaved himself back up his pink surfboard - made specially for this marathon surf session - and paddled out again.

Loftus, founder of the Kurtis Group, an advertising and design company, had a team helping him. Along with Margaret on the beach and his friends in the water, there were lifeguards and surfing judges who were there to document his marathon session, to meet Guinness' stringent demands.

People have donated money to his website, marathonsurfer.com. And on the beach, strangers dropped by to donate money - a dollar bill or five - impressed by what he was doing. Deegan, founder of the marathon for breast cancer research, spent hours with him, reporting for First Coast News and rooting him on as a friend. Her husband, Tim Deegan, surfed with Loftus from 4:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Loftus, she said, has "the biggest heart of anyone I know."

Loftus wore a full wetsuit, boots and gloves in the 73-degree water through the marathon session; at 5 feet 8, 145 pounds, he has no reserves of fat to keep him warm. In the water, at dawn, he choked up a little when he spoke to the people helping him. But he said he was holding up well. His only real complaint? He was tired, he said, of being wet all the time. It would be so nice to be dry again.

matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082

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